The Secret to Emotion
by tumblingintowells
Summary: "Good morning, Tenten-san." Tenten turned around, a pleasant smile on her face. "Good morning…" "Sai," her watcher said simply, answering her unsaid question. A false smile played at his lips. "I have been given the name Sai." T because I'm paranoid.
1. Prologue

**The Secret to Emotion  
><strong>A Naruto Fanfiction  
><strong>By: <strong>GoldenDragonClouds

"Good morning, Tenten-san." Tenten turned around, a pleasant smile on her face.  
>"Good morning…"<br>"Sai," her watcher said simply, answering her unsaid question. A false smile played at his lips. "I have been given the name _Sai_."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

"Who are you?"

"I am a Kyuubi orphan. I do not know my parents. All I have left of them are these weapon scrolls found with me among the ruins of my home."

"Why are you here?"

"I have decided to enter the Academy and although my chakra levels are not impressive, I hope that my innate skill with weapons will impress my examiners."

"What is your goal?"

"It is my dream to become a legendary kunoichi like the great Tsunade-sama."

The old man smiled down at the young girl and patted her head, gripping her chin gently to turn her head up so she would look back at him. She stared at him blankly and unblinkingly with large brown eyes.

"Now. Who are you?"

"I am a member of ROOT. The Foundation of Konohagakure."

"Why are you here?"

"I am here to serve Konoha. I live to serve you."

"What is your goal?"

"I will grow close to the most powerful Byakugan user of my generation. If this is a male, our children will live to serve Konohagakure as I do. If this is a female or the male does not return my affections, I will eventually claim her or his eyes in battle to become of further use to Konohagakure than I am now."

The old man's smile grew.

"Now, smile for me."

A moment later the young girl gave a blindingly beautiful child's smile that the man nodded at in approval.

"You are ready. Tenten."

The girl continued to smile.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

This is different from my other fics, but I have my hopes. I also know I should be updating my other fics, but my creative abilities have left me and I've been resorting to my old scraps for inspiration. So, _viola_. My muse and editor gave the green for this fic, so here it is.

Reviews are love!

Ja Ne,  
>~Golden<p> 


	2. Chapter 1

**The Secret to Emotion  
><strong>A Naruto Fanfiction  
><strong>By: <strong>GoldenDragonClouds

"Good morning, Tenten-san." Tenten turned around, a pleasant smile on her face.  
>"Good morning…"<br>"Sai," her watcher said simply, answering her unsaid question. A false smile played at his lips. "I have been given the name _Sai_."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

It was a pleasant morning on this rare day off for the Weapons Mistress of Konoha, and Tenten whistled a merry tune while gathering her sheets and clothes for an impromptu laundry day. A sudden knock at the door made her frown, and she huffed when setting her laundry basket down to make her way over to the door, fully intending to beat the person on the other side senseless if it was one of her teammates knocking. They knew better than to interrupt her on a laundry day, impromptu or not. And she had even specifically told them so at the end of last night's training session!

Another knock at the door and Tenten rolled her eyes, calling out "Coming!" and shaking her head at her teammate's impatience. She plastered an exasperated grin on her face before opening the door, remarking, "If you were so impatient you could have entered through the window like…"

Her visitor wasn't Neji, or Lee, or Gai-sensei.

But she recognized this mask.

Tenten's smile fell, replaced by an emotionless expression, and she snapped arms to her sides to give a quick bow before stepping back to admit her visitor into her home. She waited until he closed the door behind him and cast a genjutsu to ensure they were not overheard before speaking.

"Senpai." she greeted, careful not to allow her surprise and slight nervousness seep into her voice. "What brings you here?"

A moment of silence later the masked man handed her a sealed scroll. "This is directly from Danzo-sama. You are to be given another task atop of your regular mission; the details are included in that scroll."

Wordlessly, Tenten unsealed the scroll and unrolled it to find another seal. She looked up at her superior blankly.

"Your task is to help a fellow ROOT member assimilate into your society. He is of your age group and has been assigned to a team near you as a replacement for a missing team-member. As he has never interacted with those outside of ROOT he will be lacking in social education. You are to correct this in him. Do you understand?"

"Yes, senpai." Tenten stated, silently going over her instructions in her mind.

"Details are included in the files sealed inside the scroll. Take care that the information is not compromised. Do you have any questions."

It wasn't a question.

"Not at the moment, senpai." The masked man nodded, giving her house a cursory glance-over before heading over to the door again. "If any questions arise during your task, you will relay them to your assignment and he will inform us of your queries. We cannot risk further communication as-"

"I am to be deeply undercover and any connection between me and a ROOT member whom I have not met through missions will be suspicious and may compromise my situation and cause me to fail my mission." Tenten recited, the words she had repeated for years coming to her naturally as if she was reciting the list of weapons in her arsenal.

Her masked senpai gave her a curt nod before undoing the genjutsu around the apartment and disappearing through a suddenly open window. Tenten silently walked over to the window, carefully sensing for foreign sources of chakra before closing it and letting out a small sigh.

So much for laundry day.

She eyed the half-opened scroll in her hands with trepidation before squeezing her eyes shut and unfurling the scroll before she opened them. A series of seals glared up at her, all of them in black ink and bearing the symbol for 'file'. Tenten let out a small snort. Well, this was creative. She rolled her eyes before unsealing the files, giving herself a pat on the back for remembering, as usual, to hide any and all emotions from her superior.

This was ROOT, after all.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Yay! Another chapter, finally! This will be one of those fics where the chapters start out very short, but will flesh out in time. It's just an idea I'm playing with at the moment, but it has the potential to be a full blown out epic. I still have my hopes.

Reviews are love!

Ja Ne,  
>~Golden<p> 


	3. Chapter 2

**The Secret to Emotion  
><strong>A Naruto Fanfiction  
><strong>By: <strong>GoldenDragonClouds

"Good morning, Tenten-san." Tenten turned around, a pleasant smile on her face.  
>"Good morning…"<br>"Sai," her watcher said simply, answering her unsaid question. A false smile played at his lips. "I have been given the name _Sai_."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Her assignment was male.

He was her age at seventeen, and had _never _interacted with other people their age other than and since the death of his training partner several years ago.

He was highly skilled for their age and was often considered even for the most difficult missions Danzo had available. But always assasination and stealth, never infiltration. Tenten attributed that to his lack of interaction, but she would see how bad he was to never have recieved an infiltration mission _ever_ from Danzo until now.

And if she had read the undertones of the file correctly, he was Danzo's personal favourite "foundling".

Unfortunately, however, the file was not as thorough as she hoped and she was left not knowing what his assigned name or team were.

Tenten sighed as she set down the files from her ninth time reading over them, moving to pick up her mug of tea. It had been years since she had to interact with another ROOT member for more than the routine annual half-hour that she had with various fellow members over the years to check up on her long-term mission, and Tenten knew she would have to step up the game if she wanted to stay safe during this new… assignment.

No matter what she did, she would have to convince her assignment that she was still the emotionless ROOT operative she was expected to be.

No matter what.

Tenten set down her now-empty mug and stood to gather the files and seal them once more. It wouldn't do for her to leave these in the open where anyone could see them. Besides, she needed to sleep soon; she had early morning training with her teammates tomorrow.

Her "impromptu laundry day" had gone well, overall. She had finished washing her clothes and hung them up to dry, then had gone out to lunch with her friends, stopping by at the marketplace in the afternoon to buy some food and pick up a few things she needed. She had even managed to coerce Neji into taking a break from his family training and had teased Tokuma into coming along with them to an Ichiraku Ramen dinner, which quickly degenerated into silliness when they met Lee there, much to Neji's ill-concealed irritation.

Nothing she did that day, however, could distract her from the fact that her new assignment could be _anywhere_ in the village. She had been given a picture, yes, but it was he who was to approach her, not the other way around. And since their team had just gotten back from their mission yesterday, she had not had a chance to catch up on the town's gossip just yet.

Tenten patted the scroll that now held the files relating to her assignment and placed it in her pile of weapon scrolls, knowing that there, it looked to other people like just another scroll she owned. There. It didn't look any suspicious now.

Groaning, she stretched and headed over to her bedroom to catch up on some much needed rest. She would do more thinking tomorrow.

* * *

><p>"Good afternoon, Tenten-san."<p>

It was barely more than a whisper, but Tenten halted her movements, letting her scrolls fall to the ground. She launched the last two kunai in her hands at the human shaped doll in front of her, one slashing at the doll's neck and the other burying itself deep into the doll's chest where a heart should be. She did not recognize this voice, but the fact that they knew her name...

Tenten turned around, a pleasant smile on her face.

"Good afternoon…"

"Sai," her watcher said simply, answering her unsaid question. "I have been given the name Sai."

Tenten's smile fell, replaced by an emotionless expression. Sai. So that was his name for this mission. She had not expected him to find her so fast, nor had she expected him to come for her on the training grounds. But this was ROOT, and promptness was often key to any and all assignments. And here he was.

But still, she needed to be cautious.

"The Great Tree of Konoha…"

"Is supported by the unseen roots from the depths of the earth."

"So it _is_ you," Tenten stated emotionlessly before schooling her face into a bright smile. "Nice to meet you, Sai!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Thanks for bearing with me while I grind this out... I'm swamped with work right now T^T

Reviews are love!

Ja Ne,  
>~Golden<p> 


End file.
